Pokhara Airport is a domestic airport serving

Pokhara Pokhara ( ne, पोखरा, ) is a metropolis, metropolitan city in Nepal, which serves as the capital of Gandaki Province. It is the List of cities in Nepal, second most populous city of Nepal after Kathmandu, with 518,452 inhabitants living ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

. Following a new agreement on air travel between

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

, Pokhara Airport will be replaced by Nepal's third international airport,

Pokhara International Airport Pokhara International Airport ( ne, पोखरा अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय विमानस्थल) is an international airport in Pokhara, Gandaki Province, Nepal. It is located east of the old domestic airport, ...

in 2023.

History

The airport was established on 4 July 1958 by the

Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN, ne, नेपाल नागरिक उड्डयन प्राधिकरण, translit=Nepāl Nāgarik Uḍḍayan Prādhikaraṇ) is an independent civil aviation regulator. It was establishe ...

. Until the 2010s, it offered regular connections to

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...

and Jomsom; and seasonal connections to

Manang Manang ( ne, मनाङ) is a town in the Manang District of Nepal. It is located at 28°40'0N 84°1'0E with an elevation of . According to the preliminary result of the 2011 Nepal census it has a population of 6,527 people living in 1,495 indiv ...

. In 2011

Buddha Air Buddha Air Pvt. Ltd ( ne, बुद्ध एयर) is an airline based in Jawalakhel, Lalitpur, Nepal, near Patan. It operates domestic as well as international services within Nepal and India, serving mainly large towns and cities in Nep ...

, a Nepali private airline, began international flights from Pokhara to

Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport is an international airport serving Lucknow, the capital of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located in the Amausi area of the city 14 km far from the city centre, and was earlier also ...

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

, India, and announced plans to fly to

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

Indira Gandhi International Airport Indira Gandhi International Airport is the primary international airport serving Delhi, the capital of India, and the National Capital Region (NCR). The airport, spread over an area of , is situated in Palam, Delhi, southwest of the New De ...

in the future. However these international flights were discontinued soon after. In the late 2010s, Pokhara Airpot became Nepal's second domestic hub handling flights to various provinces. In 2023, the airport is scheduled to be replaced by

Facilities

The apron of the airport is relatively small and can only handle eight propeller planes at a time. Pokhara Airport is a diversion airport for the country's main airport in

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...

in times of problems such as fog. Due to a short runway and crowded apron, flights must often be re-diverted to third airports with even shorter runways.

Airlines and destinations

and

Yeti Airlines Yeti Airlines Pvt. Ltd. ( ne, यती एअरलाइन्स) is an airline based in Kathmandu, Nepal. The airline was established in May 1998 and received its Air Operators Certificate on 17 August 1998. Since 2019, Yeti Airlines is ...

provide mountain sightseeing flights or Annapurna sightseeing flights out of Pokhara Airport. They usually depart in the early morning hours and return to the airport one hour later. Several

Ultralight aviation Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with ailer ...

companies offer recreational and sightseeing flights from Pokhara Airport.

Statistics

Incidents and accidents

*On 6 November 1997, a

Necon Air Necon Air was a Nepalese airline based in Kathmandu. The airline was Nepal's first private airline company and was established on 14 September 1992 with one Hawker Siddeley HS 748 aircraft. The airline indefinitely suspended flights in 2003 due t ...

Avro 748-100 had a hydraulic failure after landing from a flight from

Kathmandu Airport Tribhuvan International Airport (Nepali: त्रिभुवन अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय विमानस्थल) (, colloquially referred to as TIA) is an international airport located in Kathmandu, Bagmati, Nepal. It ...

. The pilot attempted to steer the plane, but it hit another stationary

Hawker Siddeley HS 748 The Hawker Siddeley HS 748 is a medium-sized turboprop airliner originally designed and initially produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Avro. It was the last aircraft to be developed by Avro prior to its absorption by Hawker Siddeley. ...

. There were no fatalities among the four crew members and 44 passengers. *On 22 August 2002, a Shangri-La Air Twin Otter aircraft, on a flight from Jomsom to Pokhara, crashed into a hill that was under complete cloud cover following three days of continuous rain. All three crew and 15 passengers were killed. * On 16 February 2014, Nepal Airlines Flight 183 crashed shortly after taking off for a flight Pokhara to

Jumla Airport Jumla Airport is a domestic airport located in Jumla serving Jumla District, a district in Karnali Province in Nepal. Facilities The airport resides at an elevation of above mean sea level. It has one asphalt paved runway designated 09/27 w ...

. The crash in bad weather killed all the 18 on board.

References

External links

Pokhara flights scheduleUltralight Flight from Pokhara Airport
* {{authority control Airports in Nepal 1958 establishments in Nepal Buildings and structures in Pokhara Airports established in 1958